Adobe Flash CS3 - Changing Drawing Settings

This lesson is part of a series that will give you a comprehensive guide on how to use Flash CS3. Best of all, all of the tutorials are free for you to read and learn from. I'll do all the hard work, so you don't have to.

This hub will explain the Drawing settings in your Preference menu.  Flash allows you to fine tune your drawing behavior so it will act the way that you want it to.  As you become more familiar with Flash and start developing your own style, you'll eventually start saying, "I wish the drawing tool would do this."  The Drawing Preference menu is the first place to look to make these changes.

1. Click Flash (Mac) or Edit (Win) menu > Preferences.
2. Click the Drawing category.
3. You can change the following Drawing options:

• Pen Tool options.  Three check boxes that control how the pen tool behaves.
• Connect Lines.  Controls how close a line must be to another in order for them to snap together.  It also controls how close a line must be to horizontal or vertical before it snaps to these orientations.
• Smooth Curves.  Dictates how much smoothing Flash will apply to a drawn line.  The lower the number, the closer it will resemble how you drew it.  Smoother curves are easier to manipulate and reshape later.  Rougher curves come closer to that "hand drawn" look.  (Note: To further smooth select Modify<Shape<Smooth or Modify<Shape<Optimize)
  
• Recognize Lines.  Defines how straight a line must be drawn with the pencil tool before Flash converts it into a perfectly straight line.
• Recognize Shapes.  How close you have to draw a shape with the pencil tool before Flash converts the drawn shape into a perfect shape.
• Click Accuracy.  Determines how near the pointer must be to a shape before Flash will recognize it.

4. Click OK.